forgotten training methods

Secrets of the past

What is new was old, what was old is new again.
It seems to me that one of the most effective exercises for training fighters has been either forgotten or neglected. Chopping wood.
Now I know there are a few variations of this, specifically the sledgehammer drills and these are great tools, but like all variations they are not replacements.
If you’re a fighter and want to add some real power to your strikes then find a forest and cut it down.
“I know, green peace and I are not on speaking terms”
Swinging an axe and striking timber has an enormous trade off in terms of strength and power.
It works speed –speed strength—impact resistance-follow through-through power-focus/targeting-point of impact power-specific starting strength-recovery-repetition-kinetic chains-core; well what doesn’t it do.
There’s not a better way to develop a devastating punch or strike and it can be used to set up conditioning drills and skill set drills.
If you’re a fighter , you need to be chopping wood.

Zach even-esh ( http://www.getwrestlingstrength.com/ ) recently queried whether anyone watched his videos and learned from them or just watched and said 'that's great, now I'll go do everything I've always done'.
In the past when I've trained fighters I've definitely noticed the habit of never straying from the comfort zone. i used to pull my hair out at these "tough" guys who wouldn't do anything they weren't familiar with or was too hard.
Guess what. if you don't leave your comfort zone ( train like a beast Zach would say) then your not going to last against your opponent who does.
how fit are you going to be if your always looking for the easier way.
fitness, health, athleticism, strength, only comes from hard work. effort.
how hard you work is up too you, but you must invest in yourself with effort.



invest in yourself with effort

Functional warm ups

I know functional is overused to death in todays fitness market. Its hyped and hyperboled.
However; I think your warm-ups are not only necessary, but they need to be functional.

A warm-up needs to be preformed to get your central nervous system , musculo-skeletal and cardiovascular system coordinated to function efficiently and smoothly. It protects the muscles and joints from injury and gets the blood flowing to deliver oxygen and stream line the energy systems and remove waste products as efficiently as possible.

Most warm ups take the form of stationary bike riding (where the trainee is usually engaged in reading ) or treadmill strolling (and the trainee conversing). I put it too you that this is mostly a waste of time. This is almost inactivity and doesn’t prepare you mentally or physically for the trial you are about to put your body through (hopefully).
The other style of warm-up commonly used is the light sets leading into heavy sets. Prelude sets into work sets. Specific warm up. This is a necessary step up to your working sets and you should do this, but if you haven’t done a general warm-up before your specific warm up then your body isn’t quite prepared to work as well as it can.

Here’s one example of a great functional warm up
Push ups
Jump rope
Bear crawls
Squat
Grasshoppers
Cassock/mantis

Each exercise done for one minute. No rest between exercises.
If your working out for an hour then that’s the first 6 min.
After this you’ll be thoroughly warmed up.
What makes it functional?
* The whole body is moving as an unit throughout the circuit.
the core is continually engaged
There’s upper body specific movements
Lower body specific movements
Synaptic facilitation is incorporated (training the groove)
All the body's systems are primed
There’s mobility drills incorporated
And flexibility

Doing this warm-up daily even with out a work out would produce real world benefits in health and spirit, but a warm-up along these lines is necessary to get the most out of your training sessions.

warmups too workouts

a chronologically older athlete just needs to warm up. this gets his system up and moving and prepared for what is to come. a younger athlete (kid) has a system always primed and good to go so he can get away without proper warm ups.
warming up before training heats the body up, gets the lungs ready to transport oxygen effeciently, and loosens up the muscles and joints so the can move fluidly.
here's a good warm up
pushups
jumpropes
bear crawls
squats
grasshoppers
cassok/mantis
each exercise is done for one minute
this beats the crap out of 15 minutes of pretend work on the exercycle where 97% of people are either reading a gossip rag or gossiping amoungst themselves. thats not much of a warm up really

BUT

this is such a good opening sequence why stop here.
this warmup can easily shift into a conditioning session
6 exercise done for one minute = 6 minutes.
do this balls out for 6 minutes and thats a great metabolic start to the day.
(balls out is an old engenering term)
pace yourself for a bit and do this for 2 rounds (circuits) and thats 12 minutes.
a short, effective session
1 more round and thats 18 minutes. your well into a training program.
just.one.more.round. and youve been going non stop for 24 minutes. if you can do this for 24 min. thats a good training/conditioning session. if you can manage this for another round then the first 4 rounds you didn't really push yourself.

do these 6 exercises,in circuit fashion, without a break between circuits and slowly begin to pick up your pace as you train the circuit (over time/sessions) and you will quickly begin getting into shape. you'll get stronger and your heart and lungs will get healthier and more efficient. you'll find that your flexability improves as well.

a great how to deadlift video from diesel crew http://www.dieselcrew.com/